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Struggle of Charleston 5 Seems to
Energize Labor Unions
by Jack Heyman
THERE hasn't been much to cheer about lately for the labor
movement in the United States. The unionized work force has remained
stagnant at about 13 percent of the total for the last decade or so, a
steady decline from its high of 33 percent 50 years ago.
But labor's fortune may be changing, ironically because of a labor
struggle taking place in South Carolina, a citadel of anti-unionism.
State Attorney General Charlie Condon -- like South Carolina's political
dinosaur Senator Strom Thurmond, once a Dixiecrat and now a right-wing
Republican -- has targeted the longshore unions in the port of
Charleston.
In January of last year, 150 longshore workers picketed a ship owned by
the Danish Nordana Lines when it stopped using a union-contracted
stevedoring operation and went nonunion.
The pickets marched from their union hall to the adjacent pier, but were
confronted by 600 riot-equipped police mobilized from throughout the
state. When police bloodily clubbed longshore union president Ken Riley
on the head, a melee ensued. Any fair media coverage would have shown
unarmed workers carrying picket signs defending themselves against an
overwhelming, militarized police force.
Not so in South Carolina, where the Confederate flag, representing the
heritage of slavery, still flies at the state capitol. There, black and
white workers united in exercising their First Amendment rights to
demonstrate are portrayed as thugs. And worse, five longshore workers,
four from the predominantly-black longshore union, IDA Local 1422, and
one from the all-white checkers' union, ILA Local 1771, have been
charged with inciting to riot. They face up to five years in jail.
Furthermore, W.S.I, the nonunion stevedore company that usurped the
union's work, is now suing the locals and 27 of their members for $1.5
million dollars for loss of revenue when Nordana signed a union
contract.
Defying state oppression has emboldened other workers in South Carolina
to stand up for their rights. Under the reform leadership of Riley,
Local 1422 has successfully organized port truck drivers, crane
operators who are state employees and even won a union representation
election at W.S.I. It's precisely this kind of dynamism that can be a
catalyst for organizing the South, historically a formidable task for
the labor movement.
And a nationwide defense campaign for the Charleston 5 has been gaining
momentum, linking the labor movement with black organizations and civil
liberties groups. It began here in San Francisco when ILWU Local 10, the
longshore union, outraged by the police riot and victimization of the
picketers, immediately sent two members to join the Charleston picket
line in solidarity. Since then, defense committees, at the urging of
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, have been set up in cities around the
country to demand the charges be dropped, to raise money for legal
expenses and to organize for an international day of protest actions on
the first day of the trial, probably in November.
This Labor Day, Sweeney will be speaking at the Oakland Coliseum.
In 1990 at the Coliseum, Nelson Mandela, just released from prison,
commended the longshore union for its protest action against a ship from
South Africa, which sparked the anti-apartheid movement.
On June 9, one of the largest labor rallies ever held in South Carolina
was attended by workers from across the U.S. and even overseas. From the
podium, Bjorn Borg, president of the Swedish Dockworkers' Union, warned
that persecution of workers in South Carolina will not go unnoticed by
longshore workers around the world, alluding to an international day of
action on the first day of the trial.
Last month, the ILWU International Dockworkers' Solidarity Conference
met in Long Beach with union delegates representing longshoremen from
fifteen countries that are key to the global economy. When Riley made an
emotional appeal for solidarity actions in defense of the Charleston 5,
he received a standing ovation. If the government of South Carolina and
W.S.I are intent on pursuing their prosecutorial vendettas, they may be
unwittingly arousing a listless trade union movement here and
internationally.
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Jack Heyman lives in Oakland and is a member of the executive board of
the San Francisco longshore union.
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